


Time and Time Again

by MindyAudacious



Category: Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:14:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27449962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MindyAudacious/pseuds/MindyAudacious
Summary: Another magic fight had broken out in public months after Skulduggery and Valkyrie save the day from Argeddion. Unlike when they had publicly displayed magic, this time things got out of hand too quickly for the Sanctuary to cover it up. At Ravel's request, Skulduggery and Valkyrie find themselves needing to ask another rookie sorcerer, Rachel, a time-traveler, for help.(Takes place right after "Kingdom of the Wicked" Book 7)
Relationships: Valkyrie Cain/Skulduggery Pleasant
Kudos: 1





	1. Utterly Normal

**Author's Note:**

> First chapter will be about the OC and about things getting out of hand.

Rachel Morrel lived a boring normal life.

She went to a boring normal school, had boring normal friends, and lived with boring normal parents. Her life was so utterly normal that it was boring, or at least she realized it was after watching the newscast that Monday morning before school.

"Breaking news," the news broadcast man with the sad blonde over comb blared through the television. "A gang fight from this morning reveals more than you would think. Around five o'clock the neighborhood was awoken to the sound of yelling and screaming, only to find five men throwing what appears to be balls of fire at each other!" Rachel's mouth dropped. "Was it a new magic trick being used, or could it be magic itself? The videos we are about to show on screen may disturb you." They show a video taken with the quality of a phone camera and sure enough most of them were hurling fireballs at each other, one catching on fire and screaming. Before she could look away in horror she spots one of the men next to him wave his hand and the fire being put out almost immediately. It was almost mesmerizing.

The video transitions out and back to the news broadcaster. "Stay tuned for more on this story!"

"Rachel." She turned to the direction of the voice that called her, spotting her mom as she walked into the living room. "What was on the news? Something about a gang war?"

"Yeah, but listen-!"

"What is it with gangs these days?" she asks, disappointingly shaking her head. "Don't these people have better things to do with their lives?"

"No- well, I mean yes, but-"

"Exactly." Her mom walks back towards the kitchen. "Breaking is ready, by the way."

Rachel sighed. Defeated from a one-sided battle, she stalked into the kitchen. A few moments later her dad came in as well, work clothes spiffy as always and his brown hair combed to perfection. He looked utterly normal.

"Hey, sport," he greets, taking a seat next to her. "Ready for school?"

"Not really." She opens her mouth to tell him about the magical gang war that was on the news. She wanted to tell him that magic was real, that people could hurl fireballs, create gusts of wind, and probably fly as well. She wanted to tell him all of these things, let all her excitement spill out of her mouth. But then, she thought better of it and closed her mouth. They'd find out at their own pace, she decided. They probably wouldn't believe her anyway.

Rachel's mom places a plate in front of her. Pancakes with maple syrup and bacon. A breakfast that was utterly normal.

She scarfs down her breakfast, says her goodbyes to her parents, and runs out the door. Instead of taking her normal route to her utterly normal school she runs to the park instead. It was the place she'd always go to in order to calm down, or a place to think when her thoughts became too loud, but today her usually quiet park was filled with rioters. Some people she recognized, some she didn't, but they littered the park, screaming and yelling about something she couldn't make out at her distance. There were a couple of people that looked like they were trying to calm them down, a tall and buff man in white standing next to each of them, all of them holding a scythe. They were so still and unmoving Rachel could of mistaken them for statues if she didn't see a couple of them walk around with the person they were guarding.

All of a sudden a man punched someone else and a fight broke out. The rioters didn't dare touch the men with the statue-like bodyguards near them but everyone else in the vicinity was fair game.  
The sudden rushes of adrenaline must of awoke something inside of them, because the chaos went from a few punches and throwing of rocks to people being launched across the park and rocks suddenly flying as fast as a bullet. People, at first, were shocked at their newfound powers. Then, they found this dangerous chaos was much more fun and interesting. Those who could use magic took joy in almost killing each other, but the people who couldn't panicked for their lives, running like headless chicken only to be caught by someone and thrown into one of the playsets.  
The people, who Rachel now guessed were riot control, began to panic. The riot had gone from somewhat controllable to impossible to get a handle of.

Despite never enjoying chaos Rachel couldn't help but watch the fight in awe. People were using magic instinctively. Although she hated violence she found that she wanted to join them despite herself. That thought suddenly was thrown to the side as one of the rocks being thrown strayed and headed right for her.

She barely had time to think as she threw her hands up to block the rock on instinct, shutting her eyes. But no pain came. In fact, it went deadly quiet all of a sudden.

Frowning, she slowly lowered her arms and let her eyes flutter open. Her heart almost stops as she finds the rock an arms length away, just stopping in front of where her hands were, suspended in the air. In fact, everything around her had suddenly frozen in time, stuck in whatever action they were doing.

Her face turns pale and her legs fold under her. Just as her knees hit the ground time resumed again and the rock goes flying right over her head, hitting a tree hard enough for it to get stuck in it and lodge itself a couple inches inside.

She tried not to imagine what would of happened if time didn't stop. Next, she tried to process what had just happened. Did she just freeze time? She must of, what else could have just happened.  
In the midst of her processing, one of the riot control men was shouting something and looking at Rachel. She slowly looks over just in time to see him rushing towards her. Her mind flooded with confusion, panic, but most of all, fear.

She stumbled to her feet and ran in the opposite direction of him. He was calling out still, but it didn't sound like he was following her as his voice grew distant.  
He saw her. He had seen her do, well, whatever it was she did. She knew he saw her, but she wasn't even sure what she did, and she sure as hell didn't know what he saw her do. Right now she was too scared and confused to be confronted by anyone, she needed to figure out what just happened. She had to be in an area that was safe, where none of the men could think of reaching her. There was only one place she could think of going right now.

She was late for school anyway, so she should get going.


	2. Class is in Session

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second chapter will be about Ravel giving Valkyrie and Skulduggery, and Skulduggery throwing Valkyrie into school.

It sort of felt like deja vu to Valkyrie as she glanced at the news channel, seeing the news of the magical gang fight, and quickly flipping the channel before her parents heard enough for them to become interested. The public display of magic her and her partner Skulduggery caused was a couple months ago. This fight, however, wasn't their fault this time, it was a set of different people who will most likely get jailtime unlike the two Sanctuary Detectives. Valkyrie takes a moment to appreciate that Ravel was the Grand Mage.

Valkyrie's cellphone rings. She pulls it out of her pocket and reads Skulduggery's name on the screen. She leaves the Livingroom, heads to her room, and closes the door before answering.

"Work time."

"Does it have to do with the public show of magic?" Valkyrie asked.

"Indeed it does," Skulduggery answered, "but not in the way you're hoping."

She frowns. "What do you mean?" she asks as she starts removing her pants.

"Ravel said he couldn't get a handle on the news in time. Fights and riots started in the streets, some people starting to recognize the magic they could use that they wouldn't have known of otherwise, it's beautiful chaos, Valkyrie. So, Ravel requested for a meeting as soon as possible."

Valkyrie takes her shirt off with one quick motion. "Are you heading over here to pick me up?" She walks up to her closet and opens the door.

"I'm already here."

"Of course you are," she mutters.

"Come outside once you're ready."

"Can we get pizza?" She puts the phone down for a second and taps her mirror. Her reflection blinks at her before stepping out. "I'm missing lunch for this meeting."

"We can get pizza on the way."

"Good." She hangs up to change into her black armored clothes, the reflection putting on the pajamas Valkyrie just changed out of.

The reflection waited for Valkyrie to finish getting ready before following her to the window. Valkyrie sits on the windowpane and swings her legs out. She jumps down and manipulates the air to ease her descent. She gently lands on her feet and starts walking without looking back to make sure her reflection closed the window behind her. She heads towards the Bentley where Skulduggery was waiting.

Today his facade looked pretty average. He had a nice nose, short brown hair, and a five o'clock shadow. On second thought, she silently decided, he looked pretty handsome.

"I'm hungry," she said once she was in earshot. "Like, really hungry. Like, I'll kill for pizza hungry."

"Well then, let's get you that pizza before you commit murder and I have to arrest you." He gives a smile before getting into the driver's seat.

She frowns, taking a moment before walking around the Bentley and getting into the passenger seat. She clicks her seatbelt on as he starts driving.

She pauses for a moment before saying, "you won't actually arrest me, right?"

"As long as you don't murder someone."

"I'm your partner, how could you arrest me?!"

"Stopping murderers is what I do. If you just so happen to murder someone for the simple fact that you wanted a pizza then I couldn't let that slide. I could turn my head if you murdered someone for any other reason, but murdering someone for pizza is no joke, Valkyrie."

"Don't talk to me," she mutters, crossing her arms.

Skulduggery tries, but fails to hide a grin. "Oh no, you're angry."

"I want my pizza."

"And we'll get you your pizza."

Skulduggery drives them to the pizza place. He waits in the car as Valkyrie orders a large cheese pizza slice. Once Valkyrie was back in the Bentley and was chowing down she felt ten times better.

She wipes crumbs off her face. "So how exactly are we supposed to fix this issue?" she asks as the Bentley nears the Sanctuary. "Isn't this something a Sensitive should be handling, like Scrutinous?"

"Almost half of the population knows magic exists now, and that's not just including Ireland. I don't think the Sensitives can handle something to this grand scale. As far as how to fix the issue, that's for someone to know and for us to find out."

Valkyrie groans. "I hate when we need to find out what to do."

"I know," Ravel began once they entered the room, "that this isn't exactly your forte, and I do apologize, but we need some way to reverse this mess. The whole world is pointing their fingers at us in blame, and we could be in major trouble. As for what that trouble will be, I'm not sure. We aren't even sure how this got so out of hand so quickly, but it did, and now it's out of our control. Also, take off that facade, it's distracting."

Skulduggery taps the sigils on his collarbone and the face recedes. "I'm not sure what you expect us to do to be quiet honest with you, your holiness," he said. "We're detectives, not crowd control."

"I know," Ghastly said, "but the fact is we can't think of anyone else who'd be able to handle an out-of-control situation better than you two."

Skulduggery tilts his head. "Flattery will get you nowhere."

Valkyrie sighs. "If only we could travel back in time or something..."

The doors burst open and a man stumbles in, out of breath. Valkyrie had seen him in the halls of the Sanctuary but never bothered conversating with him. Although, she was pretty sure his name was Burt.

"Sorry to interrupt your meeting, Grand Mage." Burt quickly bows his head. "It's an emergency."

Ravel frowns. "Is something the matter?"

"We believe to have found a girl who could of possibly stopped time."

Ghastly's eyes go wide. "A time traveler...?"

Valkyrie does her best to stiffle a laugh. What a coincidence.

Skulduggery clapped, grinning. "Excellent! We know where to start now." His head turned to Burt so suddenly that Burt jumped. "Where can we find this girl?"

"I uh... I'm not sure-"

"Then what are some of the closest schools around there?"

"Oh, uh, I'd say Newton Highschool-"

"Perfect, we'll start there then!"

Skulduggery bows at the Elders before leaving. Valkyrie shrugs at them before following after.

"You think she really goes to that school?"

"I'm not entirely sure," he admits as he puts his facade back on, "but it's a good place to start."

They drove up to the school. It felt weird being near a high school when school was in session. Valkyrie's reminded that her reflection was sitting in her seat during her class. She's pretty sure it was in French right now.

Skulduggery got out of the car, Valkyrie following right after. As they walked towards the school Valkyrie asked, "So how are we going about this?" They couldn't just waltz in and ask around for the girl.

"You're going to waltz in and ask around for the girl."

Valkyrie's eyes narrowed. "You can't be serious."

"Oh come on, don't you miss being in school, learning the history of your country, making friends with kids your age-"

"You know I hate both school and kids my age."

"It'll only be for a few minutes."

She sighs. "Do we know anything about this girl that could help me find her?"

"Well, she has long brown hair and pale skin."

"Wow, that really narrows it down," she muttered sarcastically. "Do we know anything that's actually useful?"

"She's a time traveler. Keep an eye out for a girl who looks like she knows exactly what's going to happen before it happens." They stop at the school entrance.

"And what does that look like?"

"You'll know it when you see it... hopefully." Valkyrie glowers. "Go get em' tiger."

Besmudging Skulduggery's name under her breath, she enters the school. Lucky for her the front desk was empty, so she sneaked into the hallway, reading the air to make sure the coast was clear before turning any corners. She finds a girls bathroom and walks inside. The bathroom was pretty empty except for one girl who was constantly splashing water on her face. Valkyrie eyed her. Brown hair and pale.

"Uhm..." The girl jumped, at Valkyrie's voice, eyes wide and going even paler. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you."

"Oh, no it's alright." She doesn't bother to grab a napkin and rubs her face dry with her shirt.

"Is everything okay?"

"Yes... No... I mean, I'm not sure?" She gave a shaky sigh. "Have you seen the news?"

"The one about the magical gang war you mean?"

"Yes, that one."

Valkyrie shrugs. "I feel like it might be some kind of stunt or something."

The girl shakes her head. "It isn't. I saw a riot and people were using magic right before my very eyes."

Valkyrie tries to act surprised. "Oh, wow." Then, she hits her with the question. "How about you? Can you do magic?"

The girl bites her lip. "I... uh..."

"You wouldn't happen to be able to stop time, would you?"

The girl's eyes go wide and she blinks. "Wait, how did you know?"

"Actually, I'm magic as well." To prove it to her, she snaps her fingers and summons a flame. The girl's face is struck in awe and she starts to smile. "My name is Valkyrie, by the way." She puts her hand down and lets the flame go out.

"Oh, I'm Rachel."

"Rachel, I'm a detective, a magic detective if you will, and we actually need your help."

Her eyes widened. "You need my help? Really?" She had a look of both excitement and fear. "Why me?"

The bell rang and she cursed. "Look, I'll explain in the car, but right now you have to trust me and come with me."

She nods. "Yeah, alright."

Valkyrie runs to the window and pushes it open. Skulduggery spots her from the Bentley and hurries over. Making sure no one was around, he flies up. Rachel walks to the window and watches in amazement as he reaches their level.

Skulduggery smiles and tips his hat. "Hello there."

She slowly and minutely waves her hand, her eyes practically sparkling. "Hi." She pauses. "You're flying."

"Indeed I am."

"Can we do this outside?" Valkyrie hisses. "Someone could walk in at any moment."

Almost on que they hear someone about to open the bathroom door. Valkyrie reacts in time to push the air against it, keeping it shut. Someone bangs on it.

Skulduggery offers a hand and helps Rachel out, carrying her down safely. "Wait here for just a moment." He flies back up and starts to push air against the door as well. Valkyrie drops her arms and rushes to the window, climbing out. Skulduggery grabs her waist and lowers them down to the ground.

He adjusts his hat, fixes his suit, and leads the way to the car. "Well," he said, "that was easy."


End file.
